parables of a prodigal world

"To become a disciple of Jesus is to accept now that inversion of human distinctions that will sooner or later be forced upon everyone by the irresistible reality of his kingdom." - Dallas Willard Join the conspiracy . Grace and Peace, Raffi

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In this baby's eyes, I am human, I am loved, I am that which I was always meant to be. In this baby's eyes, Six billion people, each unique, Can live as one family, brothers and sisters. In this baby's eyes, Millennia of fear and death, systematized, Can be erased, forgotten, left behind. But we don't see with this baby's eyes, We are wise, worldly, grown up, Our eyes turned inward upon ourselves. Ah, that we may be saved, Justified by faith, sanctified, By that which is so clear in this baby's eyes. Grace and Peace, and a very merry Christmas, Raffi

For those who are, or are considering becoming, Advent Conspirators this "Holiday Season," I thought I'd help out your online shopping with what I call The Ultimate Advent (conspiracy) Shopper's Guide . Happy shopping...and tell a friend or two (or three). Grace and Peace, Raffi

December 1st: N.T. Wright's birthday and the unofficial start of the Christmas countdown. Seems appropriate. So in honor of those two events, here's a little snippet from Wright's article, What is this Word?: The Incomprehensible, Intimate Christmas Story . If you have time, read the whole thing. Highly recommended: One of the greatest journalists of the last generation, Bernard Levin, described how, when he was a small boy, a great celebrity came to visit his school. The headmaster, perhaps wanting to impress, called the young Levin to the platform in front of the whole school. The celebrity, perhaps wanting to be kind, asked the little boy what he'd had for breakfast. "Matzobrei," replied Levin. A typical central European Jewish dish, Matzobrei is made of eggs fried with matzo wafers, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Levin's immigrant mother had continued to make it even after years of living in London. To him, it was a perfectly ordinary word for a perfectly ...

Maybe this is precisely the year when this will catch on. What with the credit crunch and the free-falling economy, maybe this just might have the impetus to reach a critical mass. Yeah, it'd be cheating, I know. People would buy into it for the wrong reason. But maybe that's how a Conspiracy has to play out. Or, maybe, it'll start for the wrong reasons, but become a tradition, so that future generations would just see it as "the norm." Or maybe none of that matters, as long as one extra human being gets to not die because of a lack of clean water. Yeah, maybe. Pass it on. And tell whomever you pass it on to to pass it on. Grace and Peace, Raffi

Merry Christmas. As Christmas 2007 has arrived, so concludes my little week-long "Countdown to Christmas" series. Here's a re-cap: Part 1: What if... Part 2: The Most Dangerous Baby Ever Born Part 3: Top 10 Christmas Quotes Part 4: The Christmas Manifesto Part 5: When we say "God Became Flesh at Christmas," ... Part 6: Christmas, Easter, and The Usual Suspects So now we're left with the last post in the series. I thought long and hard about what that post should be. And it occurred to me that, as people start to think about going back to work, taking down their Christmas lights, recycling their Christmas trees, we should really look at the big question, the big "So What" of it all. What does Christmas, the birth of Jesus, who would go on to do some pretty interesting things, mean for us living 2,000 years later. How is this baby relevant to the 21st century western world. The answer, as always, has been given by one far more able to give such a hug...

Part 6 of 7: Christmas, Easter, and the Usual Suspects. Have you ever seen the movie The Usual Suspects ? Remember how at the end, after we discover that Verbal was, in fact, Kaiser Soze, we get a series of snapshot-flashbacks of the various points in the narrative that suddenly make sense based on that startling revelation? You remember that feeling of “ah-hah!” you got right there at the end. I don’t know about you, but I went back and watched the story again after my newfound revelation. In fact, I’ve watched the movie about six or seven times, all told. I think Christmas is kind of like that. It comes from, and only in light of, the perspective of people who already know the secret of the shocking climax, who have reflected and lived for many years in light of it, and who then retell the story in light of that revelation. And the shocking climax, of course, is that the baby born on that day, a birth that caused quite a stir, would go on to be bodily raised from the dead, thereby i...

Part 5 of 7: When we say "God became flesh at Christmas," which "god" are we talking about? N.T. Wright often recounts the time when he was a college chaplain at Oxford and one of his duties was to greet the undergraduate freshmen and let them know that he would be available for them if they ever wanted to talk, etc. He remembers that some of the students would say to him something to the effect of, "Thank you for the offer, but you probably won't be seeing much of me because, you see, I don't believe in God," to which he would routinely reply, "Really? Which 'god' is it that you don't believe in?" Most of the students would stumble out a few popular notions about this 'god,' like "A being who sits up in the sky and looks down disapprovingly at the world, who occasionally intervenes with 'miracles,' and who will eventually send bad people to hell and good people to heaven," to which he would respond, ...

Less than one week to Christmas. Got all your shopping done yet? As the final madness approaches, please join me for 7 days and 7 stories/blurbs/video/audio/etc. about how we may re-imagine, re-appropriate, and re-learn how to celebrate the story of the Lord of the World arriving in a feeding trough in the middle of the night, the bastard this-worldly son of an unwed mother, destined to become the most climactic figure in all history by accepting the call to embody the fullness of His other-worldly Father. It's not quite poetry; it's not quite an essay; I call it a "manifesto." It's perhaps the most poignant modern writing on Christmas I've yet found. May it challenge you and focus your perspective, as it did mine. Part 4 of 7: The Christmas Manifesto There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day,and that is, keeping Christmas. Are you willing… to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; t...

Less than one week to Christmas. Got all your shopping done yet? As the final madness approaches, please join me for 7 days and 7 stories/blurbs/video/audio/etc. about how we may re-imagine, re-appropriate, and re-learn how to celebrate the story of the Lord of the World arriving in a feeding trough in the middle of the night, the bastard this-worldly son of an unwed mother, destined to become the most climactic figure in all history by accepting the call to embody the fullness of His other-worldly Father. Nothing like a good old "Top 10" list when the ol' creative juices start running dry, or when the ol' hard drive crashes. Whoever sent me that virus, God loves you and forgives you, and so will I...just not today. Part 3 of 7: Top 10 Chrsitmas Quotes 10. Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We...

Less than one week to Christmas. Got all your shopping done yet? As the final madness approaches, please join me for 7 days and 7 stories/blurbs/video/audio/etc. about how we may re-imagine, re-appropriate, and re-learn how to celebrate the story of the Lord of the World arriving in a feeding trough in the middle of the night, the bastard this-worldly son of an unwed mother, destined to become the most climactic figure in all history by accepting the call to embody the fullness of His other-worldly Father. Ever notice how cute and cuddly Baby Jesus usually looks in those Nativity scenes? "Cute and cuddly" is not how N.T. Wright would describe the baby. Part 2 of 7: The Most Dangerous Baby Ever Born Grace and Peace, Raffi

One week to Christmas. Got all your shopping done yet? As the final madness approaches, please join me for 7 days and 7 stories/blurbs/video/audio/etc. about how we may re-imagine, re-appropriate, and re-learn how to celebrate the story of the Lord of the World arriving in a feeding trough in the middle of the night, the bastard this-worldly son of an unwed mother, destined to become the most climactic figure in all history by accepting the call to embody the fullness of His other-worldly Father. Part 1 of 7: What If...? Grace and Peace, Raffi

One of the primary reasons that Christmas has been transformed, in the last few centuries, from a celebration of the appearance of the most revolutionary, paradigm-shattering human being in history to a tame, heart-warming children's festival is, I believe, due to the centrality of the "virgin birth" (or, more properly, the "virgin conception") narratives. Enlightenment modernism, with its foundation of objective, scientific rationalism, its closed-continuum of a cause-and-effect universe, has disallowed the truth of these accounts before the inquiry could ever get started because, if the virgin conception stories are true, they would undermine its entire worldview. But at the start of an age where that worldview has, in large part, already been undermined, it would serve us well to go back and re-examine the virgin conception narratives if we are to stand any chance of rescuing Christmas from the commercial interests that have hijacked its revolutionary message...

No lengthy post today. Far too tired. Started my Christmas shopping, got a tree, decorated it and put those flashy lights all around the house. With the time and the money I spent, I could have cooked a hot meal for a few dozen homeless families. "He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him." Merry Christmas, Raffi

As we enter the chaotic and stressful world of the official Christmas/holiday/winter shopping season, I feel compelled to stop and ponder the true meaning of Christmas. And whenever I feel compelled to ponder the "true meaning" of any Christian topic, I find myself turning to one person who seems to understand the "big picture" better than most, and is therefore able to explain the details within that big picture in a way that makes holistic, worldview-level sense: Bishop N.T. Wright. Bishop Wright has spoken and written extensively on the meaning of Christmas. But the following article that appeared in Christianity Today is a beautifully condensed summary of what Christmas is all about, from to point of view of John, the Disciple that Jesus Loved. Give it a read, and I pray that it will stay with you as you spend the next month looking for the perfect gift basket for Uncle Joe. N.T. Wright and the Meaning of Christmas Grace and Peace, Raffi GeekySpeaky: Submit You...